Zainab Al-Khawaja And Her Father, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja Continue Their Hunger Strike In Bahrain

Two human rights activists, father and daughter, were jailed in Bahrain and went on a hunger strike after they were denied family visitation rights last week.

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Two human rights activists, father and daughter, were jailed in Bahrain and went on a hunger strike after they were denied family visitation rights last week.

While talking to the Huffington Post, Maryam al-Khawaja, daughter and sister of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Zainab Al-Khawaja, said that the last thing she heard about both of them was that her father’s health was deteriorating and he was convinced to drink some water by another jailed relative.

Zainab’s condition was also reported to be serious since she had begun coughing up blood from her throat and nose and was given a small amount of water. Maryam criticized the United States for its support to the Bahraini government and revealed that instead of providing medical treatment to her sister, an officer was sent to videotape her condition in jail.

Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is one of the most prominent Bahraini-Danish human rights activists and was imprisoned on the charges of participating in an uprising against the ruling monarchy in February 2011. Zainab was arrested for protesting against her father’s detention and her tweets about the Bahraini uprising on the Twitter account AngryArabiya (@angryarabiya).

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights issued a statement on Sunday that the father and daughter refused to wear prison uniforms and as a result of that the jail authorities denied family visitation rights. The Bahraini Ministry of Interior tweeted on Saturday:

Violations were related to refusing to wear their uniforms, hence the visits were postponed according to the rules #Bahrain